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FA Cup first round

How could a Rovers supporter forget those days, playing like champions till Easter and then for some unexplained reason imploding and missing out on promotion. The good old days. Go out on a Saturday with a pound, have a couple of pints before the match, watch the match, a pie and cup of tea at half time, a couple of pints in the Prenton after the match then into town for the rest of the night to celebrate the victory, fish and chips on the way home and still having enough to buy a Rolls Royce with the change from your pound.
 
Yes, Alun. Happy days. My parents were not well off so I didn’t get a lot of pocket money, but as a schoolboy I could afford to go to all home games and travel by coach to many away games. I managed a lot of Liverpool and Everton games too. Fish and chips on the way home for evening games.

I think it helped that ground entry was cheap. Even then league champions Liverpool only charged 15p for the Kop! Rovers programmes were three old pence (just over 1p).

Football has got ridiculously expensive, especially the EPL, but even supporting Rovers has got much less affordable. In the EPL, players wages are the main factor, but Rovers’ costs have risen a lot too - wages, stadium upkeep, support staff and of course VAT.
 
Alun said:
How could a Rovers supporter forget those days, playing like champions till Easter and then for some unexplained reason imploding and missing out on promotion. The good old days. Go out on a Saturday with a pound, have a couple of pints before the match, watch the match, a pie and cup of tea at half time, a couple of pints in the Prenton after the match then into town for the rest of the night to celebrate the victory, fish and chips on the way home and still having enough to buy a Rolls Royce with the change from your pound.
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If we ever win at home I might just do that! :lol: :laugh:
 
If I'm right, and my brain is functioning to remember, the ferry fare and bus to even Goodison or Anfield back then was still less than a shilling, obviously before decilimisation. And entrance fee in the kop or Gwladys Street was around sixpence ish for a kid. Late sixties I believe.
And I also did Rovers Friday night and over the water on a Saturday.
I would get my pocket money on a Friday cos it was pay day.
Mum would give me 5 shillings on a good week but I would have to earn it.
 
Keith Hill (Bolton) said:
If I'm right, and my brain is functioning to remember, the ferry fare and bus to even Goodison or Anfield back then was still less than a shilling, obviously before decilimisation. And entrance fee in the kop or Gwladys Street was around sixpence ish for a kid. Late sixties I believe.
And I also did Rovers Friday night and over the water on a Saturday.
I would get my pocket money on a Friday cos it was pay day.
Mum would give me 5 shillings on a good week but I would have to earn it.
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Can't recall exact costs especially once inflation got silly. But an old friend from Bootle reckons he and his mates, young men going into the sixties, went to both sets of home games whilst being roughly split red and blue. They were working class with average incomes. I doubt they could afford to watch their own team nowadays. From what i hear the fans Shankly eulogised so heavily about, and rightly so in my opinion, don't even exist on matchdays.
 
I think there is still a core of local supporters especially season ticket holders. But the percentage of holiday supporters is growing so quickly around the top clubs. Of course not so long ago, if you had a local postcode, you were denied but if you were outside, you could get a ticket. There is a waiting list for season tickets at both blue and red. Even with the increased capacities.
It is certainly not a working-class sport now. The television and other streaming services are the only live ish, sport some working class can afford. The armchair and keyboard warriors are the ones, heard most. And of course, the media's opinion is always in your face.
Just look at sky sports news, getting klopp to comment on the managers job! Ffs, he's lost a football match, it happens. They won the league last season and the pundits and media are after blood. Not talking about utds boss now!
 
bring back the cowshed! said:
Yes, Alun. Happy days. My parents were not well off so I didn’t get a lot of pocket money, but as a schoolboy I could afford to go to all home games and travel by coach to many away games. I managed a lot of Liverpool and Everton games too. Fish and chips on the way home for evening games.

I think it helped that ground entry was cheap. Even then league champions Liverpool only charged 15p for the Kop! Rovers programmes were three old pence (just over 1p).

Football has got ridiculously expensive, especially the EPL, but even supporting Rovers has got much less affordable. In the EPL, players wages are the main factor, but Rovers’ costs have risen a lot too - wages, stadium upkeep, support staff and of course VAT.
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly,BBTC.I think it used to cost me nine old pence to watch Rovers as a child, I used to run messages for people in the street to get the money to go to the match, I remember the programes three old pence. Memories of a forgotten age.
 
I have a programme dated back to the mid fifties when I was born, from my birthday.
without getting it out of its frsme, I believe it was 1d.
just a four page printed double sheet folder down the middle.
adverts include Bents ales, Herrons ford dealership, News of the World, Hardings coaches. T.E.G. Drinks.
and a police safety notice.
the programme had our players as 1-11 in a 1-2-3-5 formation. A very attacking formation with a certain Mr Bell and a certain Jones leading the forwards, with wingers.
I believe, this was the M-W formation, used for a lot of years before the sixties.
blue shirts, white shirts and hooped socks.. Years before the change to white shirts etc.
 
Programmes showed players in 1-2-3-5 formation until the late sixties, although I seem to remember Rovers played more of a 4-2-4 formation under Dave Russell.

I remember Hyman Jacob’s, the tailor, advertising every week and also Max Spielman the photographer. That’s 60 years ago, but as the wife will testify I can’t remember much that happened 60 minutes ago.
 
The crowds at the top clubs are definitely different now. I went to Liverpool and Everton in the 1960s and the crowds were generally local and working class. Standing on the Kop with guys who had probably worked on the docks or some such in the morning and who often formed a significant element of the crowd. Last time I was in UK last September I went to Anfield with one of my brothers, having paid some horrendous sum for tickets, and it was a complete different experience, almost genteel. As a senior I am not complaining but definitely different to the rugby scrum that was the 1960s Kop!
 
bring back the cowshed! said:
Programmes showed players in 1-2-3-5 formation until the late sixties, although I seem to remember Rovers played more of a 4-2-4 formation under Dave Russell.

I remember Hyman Jacob’s, the tailor, advertising every week and also Max Spielman the photographer. That’s 60 years ago, but as the wife will testify I can’t remember much that happened 60 minutes ago.
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It happens to us all BBTC.
 
Keith Hill (Bolton) said:
I have a programme dated back to the mid fifties when I was born, from my birthday.
without getting it out of its frsme, I believe it was 1d.
just a four page printed double sheet folder down the middle.
adverts include Bents ales, Herrons ford dealership, News of the World, Hardings coaches. T.E.G. Drinks.
and a police safety notice.
the programme had our players as 1-11 in a 1-2-3-5 formation. A very attacking formation with a certain Mr Bell and a certain Jones leading the forwards, with wingers.
I believe, this was the M-W formation, used for a lot of years before the sixties.
blue shirts, white shirts and hooped socks.. Years before the change to white shirts etc.
Click to expand...
I was one of seven, so never got pocket money, so could not afford a program in those days, I remember going on Hardings coaches to away games from charring cross. My program collection got thrown out by my mum, when I left home, I nearly cried when she told me. Mum said she thought they were rubbish and I didn't want them.
 
Alun said:
I was one of seven, so never got pocket money, so could not afford a program in those days, I remember going on Hardings coaches to away games from charring cross. My program collection got thrown out by my mum, when I left home, I nearly cried when she told me. Mum said she thought they were rubbish and I didn't want them.
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Yes, Harding’s coaches. I spent many Saturdays on them.

Sorry to hear about your programmes. I had several hundred collected over the years including some I was given. In preparation for a house move, I sold most in an auction and got quite a lot of money.
 
drwhoman said:
As a senior I am not complaining but definitely different to the rugby scrum that was the 1960s Kop!
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I remember it was three shillings (15p) to go on Liverpool’s Kop. That was quite civilised although you could get crushed against a barrier if you weren’t careful. If you couldn’t afford it, you could go into the Boys Pen next door, which was only one shilling (5p). I tried it once - only once. It was a hell hole!
 
bring back the cowshed! said:
I remember it was three shillings (15p) to go on Liverpool’s Kop. That was quite civilised although you could get crushed against a barrier if you weren’t careful. If you couldn’t afford it, you could go into the Boys Pen next door, which was only one shilling (5p). I tried it once - only once. It was a hell hole!

I agree. I made the mistake about the barrier once and once it was! A nightmare while your description of the boys pen is right. A real dungeon! Could not see much either! When Rovers were not playing I often went to South Liverpool, then in the Lancashire Combination. 5 minutes walk from home and a crowd of around 500. Not a bad standard. Case and Aldridge started there before the great scouting Hoovers took over!
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drwhoman said:
When Rovers were not playing I often went to South Liverpool, then in the Lancashire Combination. 5 minutes walk from home and a crowd of around 500. Not a bad standard. Case and Aldridge started there before the great scouting Hoovers took over!
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You must’ve been at Holly Park when South played Tranmere in the FA Cup then? 1972. Crowd for that one was a touch under 6,000 and Rovers, who included Yeats, St John and Lawrence, won 2-0.

You’ll recognise the Saint but a bonus point if you recall the South player on the right (he was a regular for donkeys years, including around the time you were watching them).

IMG_3844.jpeg
 
drwhoman said:
Arthur Goldstein? I recall Kit Fagan was playing for Rovers. I was at the game. Holly Park is now a bus terminal!
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Arthur Goldstein it is! Gerry Keegan - possibly without a moustache ;) - was his defensive partner.

Holly Park is now beneath the Liverpool South Parkway bus/rail interchange but back then the station was still called Allerton. There’s a blue plaque in the interchange commemorating the time Puskas played at Holly Park in a charity match in the 60s, a game which pulled in a crowd of 10,000 with another 10,000 reportedly locked out!

Sadly nothing to commemorate Tranmere’s Cup win there!
 
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